The present invention relates to snow skiing apparatus in general and in particular to a ski brake for preventing a runaway ski upon separation of the ski from a ski boot.
Ski brakes have been adopted and used in recent years for preventing a runaway ski upon separation of a ski from a ski boot. Prior to the use of ski brakes, it was and frequently still is the practice to prevent a runaway ski by tying the ski to a skier's foot as by a tether such as a strap or the like. In use, in the event of a separation of a ski from a ski boot, as during a fall, the strap or other tether prevents the ski from becoming loose and running away in an uncontrolled manner. Runaways, it will be appreciated, can cause serious and even fatal injuries to skiers downhill from the falling skier.
The use of a strap or the like for tying a ski to a skier's foot, while suitable for preventing loss of a ski during a fall and injury to others downhill from the falling skier, can still result in injuries to the falling skier. Such injuries are caused by the ski swinging uncontrollably on the end of the tether and striking the skier.
To avoid injury to both the falling skier as well as to skiers downhill from the falling skier, an automatic ski brake may be employed instead of a tether.
While a variety of braking means are prior known, possibly the most popular type of ski brake heretofore proposed comprises a pair of arm members which extend along each side of a ski. During a fall, when a separation of a ski and a ski boot occurs, the arm members which carry braking surfaces pivot or otherwise move downwardly to an operative position below the bottom surface of the ski for engaging ice and snow. This prevents sliding of the ski. During normal skiing the arm members and braking surfaces are moved to a non-interfering or inoperative position and are held there against a spring force or the like by the pressure of the ski boot on a holding apparatus coupled to the braking arm members. A disclosure of the type of ski brake described hereinabove, with certain improvements having to do with the positioning of the braking arm members when they are moved to their inoperative position is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,271, issued to Riedel, Nov. 2, 1976.
The principal disadvantages of prior known ski brakes lie in the manner in which they are moved from an inoperative position to an operative position, the manner in which the arms are held in their operative position and the manner in which they are held in their inoperative position. Generally, a spring member or other force member is used to move the braking arm members to their operative position upon separation of a ski from a ski boot. With the braking arm members in their operative position, the spring member is substantially fully extended and necessarily the spring force for holding the braking members against the force of snow and ice impacting thereagainst is minimal or at least substantially less than the force typically required for holding the braking arm members in their inoperative position. Because considerable force is required to hold the braking arm members in their operative position against the force of snow and ice impacting thereagainst, the spring members heretofore used have been relatively heavy and the magnitude of the force necessary to hold the braking arm members in their inoperative position relatively large. This has resulted in a tendency for the holding apparatus used for holding the braking arm members in their inoperative position to push the ski boot upwardly in the binding during the time that the ski boot is holding the ski braking members in their inoperative position. This tendency to elevate the boot in the binding is found to change the release characteristics of the binding in an undesirable manner. For this reason, it is desirable to have a ski brake in which the holding forces for holding the ski brake arm members in their inoperative position are substantially less than those necessary for opposing the forces of ice and snow impacting thereagainst during braking of the ski after separation of the ski and the ski boot.